Planes... trains... and automobiles... We traveled by everything but boat during our European week. Our last day we took the train from Edinburgh to London. Thanks to Brian and his laptop we worked out all the paying details, and handed over big checks to Doug and Missy... thanks again for organizing everything!... and then said goodbye to them when they jumped off an early stop to head to their home in the English countryside. So sad to say goodbye.
The rest of us headed on to Kingscross Station in London, got pictures taken at Platform 9 3/4, took our luggage to our hotel and then met again for lunch and a full afternoon of sightseeing.
I loved all the red and black telephone boothes, taxi's and double decker buses. It's just so London. We got a 'hop-on, hop-off' bus ticket and waited here for our double decker bus to arrive.
Our bus was open on top so we got to ride through the city with the breeze on our face, snapping pictures of everything we saw. It was perfect! We hoped off to walk around and take pictures of the Tower Bridge.
Don't you just love handing your camera over to a strange tourist? It would have been nice if the whole London bridge was in the background. Is that really asking for a lot?
Favorite pictures from our afternoon atop our double decker bus...
The Eye of London...
the Parliament Building and Big Ben ...
the Thames River, the Westminster Bridge and the houses of Parliament...
so many cool buildings...
a few more of Big Ben,
and the Buckingham Palace.
After Buckingham Palace we walked through Hyde Park and then over to Herrod's... a huge department store that makes Nordstroms look like Kmart. It was crazy! It was fun to see all the fancy cars driving by and all the super rich people shopping. Whoa! We walked around a little but mostly stayed in the Herrods gift shop browsing overpriced mugs, bags and stuffed animals all saying Herrod's! After all of our sight seeing we wandered around and found an italian restaurant for dinner. It was Chris' birthday... 35! ... so we sang to him while he ate dessert and then headed back to the hotel on the metro!
(so excited for the metro!)
Terri, Geneva and I ... getting ready for our last metro ride. One more night in our fancy London Marriott and then off to the airport in the morning.
Truly an amazing trip!!! and the best part? That every minute was spent laughing and talking with our friends... talking about our kids, our callings, our wards, laughing about the good ol' days in Maryland, talking about where we might settle down, planning which vacation is next, laughing at Doug's 'dingle peninsula' joke, laughing when some got off the subway at the wrong stop, laughing about the sewer... every moment was a party. Thanks friends!
Happy Dad.
Ryan and Katie doing tricks.
Rob, Lindsey and Haylee enjoying the tube.
John, Nikole and Kayla taking a ride.
Chris skiing.
Lisa skiing. 
Ryan skiing... he couldn't get enough. 
Katie skiing.... She did so great. By the end of the two days she was skiing around like a pro! 
We 'made' Emily try skiing. She was nervous but she did get up for a little bit. This is the only picture I got... with Chris helping her in the water. When she came back to the beach she was so proud... (see picture below) and glad that Daddy made her try... but didn't want to try again. 
Oh my, I'm laughing even as I type. Here is Emily trying desperately to tap her head... the signal we taught them for 'I'm done!' Poor kiddos. 
